Early-stage documentation

I have been looking at when software founders start needing product documentation. I reviewed discussions here and in another founder community, and noticed these common themes:

• Customers need help reaching their first useful result.
• Founders or developers answer the same “how do I…” questions repeatedly.
• Support becomes harder to handle personally as the customer base grows.
• Help content becomes inaccurate as the product changes.
• Founders are unsure what is worth documenting before product-market fit.

My conclusion is that an MVP needs enough clear information for customers to get started, complete the main task, understand important limitations, and get help when they are stuck. Then the documentation can grow as the product, customer base and support demand grow.

Does that match your experience? What made you decide it was time to document more than the bare minimum?

Author: tw15tw15